Some known measuring devices for the measurement of a distance to a target object consist of an electrical-optical component designed as a beam source, a further electrical-optical component designed as a detector, and a beam shaping system with a transmission lens and a reception lens. The beam source and the transmission lens are characterized as transmission devices, and the detector and the reception lens are characterized as receiver devices. The beam source transmits a transmission beam, which is directed by the transmission lens to the target object. A reception beam, which is reflected and/or scattered by the target object, is shaped by the reception lens and directed to the detector. The transmission and reception devices are fixed on a lens support, which is designed as a single piece or is composed of multiple pieces. The lens support can be designed as a metallic body with holders made of plastic, for example. It is disadvantageous if all the components of the measuring device must be adjusted with respect to each other and then fixed in the adjusted position, with great effort. Further, the different materials of the lens components and the lens support can lead to misadjustments as a result of temperature influence, for example.
Some measuring devices are subdivided into paraxial arrangements, wherein the optical axes of the transmission and reception devices run parallel to each other with a spacing, and coaxial arrangements, wherein the optical axes of the transmission and reception devices lie one above the other, and are separated by means of a beam splitting lens. In the case of coaxial arrangements, the transmission lens and the reception lens are integrated into a common beam shaping lens which shapes the laser beam and the reception beam.